


you’re unlike any other (you’ll always be my thunder)

by AgentJoanneMills



Category: DC Cinematic Universe, DCU, Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, F/F, Fluff, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Romance, SuperCorp, Supergirl Meets Elementary, in which Lena Luthor and Jamie Moriarty are friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 20:57:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9921884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentJoanneMills/pseuds/AgentJoanneMills
Summary: Lena hears the all-too-familiar swish of a cape, and she swivels in her seat just in time to see the Girl of Steel softly land on her balcony. She has a pensive look on her face, and there’s a crinkle between her brows, so often seen on Kara Danvers but rarely on this persona. But Lena doesn’t have the time to dwell on that, or on the way Supergirl seems to fold in on herself as she looks between Lena and Jamie, because then Jamie is on her feet, gushing, “Supergirl! A pleasure to meet you at last!” offering Supergirl a hand.(Alternatively: Lena is visited by an old friend. Kara also drops by. Lena is just trying her best.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> *Recognizable elements belong to their respective owners.  
> **Merely a work of fanfiction. No copyright infringement intended.  
> ***Title from the classic hit “[Thunder](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytLzxl4-mLw)” by Boys Like Girls.

 

Lena, as much as she has come to detest the fact, _is_ a Luthor—never mind that she has only just learned that the blood flowing through her veins is indeed Luthor blood. This blood comes with a lot of baggage, as she knows too well, and it also comes with a lot of, for lack of a better word, _unsavory_ connections—particularly those of complicated entanglements with the law.

She’s been sort of hoping that she won’t have to deal with these connections any time soon—or at all, to be honest—but has been earlier established, she’s a _Luthor_ , and sooner or later, the name and all it entails will catch up to her.

She just really wishes that it’s _later_. After all she’s done, doesn’t she deserve at least a little bit of a break?

But the universe seems to disagree, and so here she is, in her office, staring at the face of one of the most brilliant criminal masterminds of the modern era (excluding Lena’s own kin, of course).

Jamie Moriarty looks as dashing as ever, in her dark jeans, a black coat draped across her lap, and her crisp white shirt rolled to the elbows, her blond hair falling over her shoulder in tender waves (the only tender thing about her, actually, Lena thinks). Her bright blue eyes seem to twinkle with amusement, and her lips are quirked into that ever-present smirk that Lena knows has heralded the end of countless lives.

Lena sighs, leaning back in her chair, raising an eyebrow. “What are you doing here?” she asks, tone wry.

Jamie huffs a laugh, which would have seemed inelegant were it done by anyone else. “Oh, come now, Lena. Is that any way to greet an old friend?”

“ _Friend_ is stretching it, if you ask me.”

“There was a fair amount of stretching involved, yes,” Jamie says, mischief clear in her gaze, her tone rich with insinuation. “You’ve always been a flexible one.”

Lena shakes her head, refusing to take the bait. “What are you doing here?” she repeats.

“Ouch, wow, that’s cold,” Jamie says with a pout, clutching a hand to her chest, almost making Lena smile. _Almost._ “That hurts, Lena. Have we not moved past the, well, the past?”

“Try asking that to the rest of National City. Oh, and Metropolis, while you’re at it.” Lena attempts to appear nonchalant, but an echo of pain is still etched in the set of her lips. “Actually, you know what? Ask that to the rest of the world. See if the answer is in any way favourable to someone with my name.”

“You’re more than your name.”

That, at last, startles an incredulous laugh out of Lena. “That’s rich, coming from _you_.” She rolls her eyes. “I don’t have the patience for any more games, Jamie,” she says tiredly. “Or is it Irene? Margaret? I’ve lost track of your aliases, I’m afraid.”

“I’ve always been Jamie to you.” Something softens in Jamie’s eyes. “I thought you knew that.”  

“I thought I knew a lot of things.” Lena waves a hand, gesturing to the world in general, weary as can be. “Look at how wrong I turned out to be.” She tries to keep the sliver of bitterness from her tone but fails, and, of course, Jamie notices.

Jamie _always_ notices. It’s one of her most annoying qualities.

“That’s not your fault,” she says.

“Is it not?” Lena challenges. “You know as much as I do that nothing good ever comes out of assuming the best of everyone. In fact, this is the belief upon which _you_ have built your empire.”

“But that’s just it, isn’t it? It’s not _everyone_.” Jamie levels her with a calculating look, one that Lena herself has utilised in business transactions and in dealing with her family. She knows she’s being evaluated, right down to the slowness of her breath and the steadiness of her hands, and she returns the look in kind. “Something good _did_ come out of assuming the best of a certain _someone_ , at least.” At Lena’s carefully blank look, Jamie goads, “I’m talking about Supergirl, in case it wasn’t clear yet.”

Ah, so now they’ve finally touched the heart of the matter.

“What of her?”

“Don’t be obtuse, it doesn’t suit you.”

“And you really should stop being so hypocritical. It’s unbecoming.” Lena shifts, looks at Jamie more fully. “You didn’t answer my question. Why are you here?”

It is Jamie who sighs now, getting rather tired of the deflections, and Lena thinks she looks more human like this—frustrated, amused, and comforted in equal measure (for it is Jamie who taught her this technique in the first place, all those years ago, when, in an uncharacteristic display of pity, she showed the Luthor scion how to keep _everyone_ away). “I’m here to check on my friend.” She raises a hand, stopping Lena’s protest. “And yes, Lena, I know my definition of _friend_ leaves a lot to be desired by _your_ standards, but it is what it is.” She shrugs, smirk again firmly in place. “You’re one of the few I tolerate without actively planning to kill in the foreseeable future, so believe me when I say I don’t take this relationship lightly.”

“A _relationship_ now, is it? I suppose I should feel grateful, then.”

“I’m glad you can see from my point of view,” Jamie says imperiously, and this time, Lena laughs a genuine laugh.

“I’m fine.”

“Are you, really?”

“I’ve been worse.” Lena shrugs. “At least for now I know there’ll be a lull in my brother’s activities, as well as my mother’s.”

“Their operations did take a beating,” Jamie muses. “And what of the remnants of CADMUS?”

“I’m working on it. Its scope reaches far deeper than I could have imagined.” Lena is irked with this detail, and it shows in her frown. “It will take a while for me to purge everything.” Months, if she’s lucky. But luck has never been on her side. Just thinking about all the things she would have to do to clean up her family’s mess makes her want to bury herself in the sand.

Or throw herself to the sun, maybe. That seems a lot more poetic, given her family history.

“I figured,” Jamie says, “which is why I have also done my research.”

Lena raises both eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“I have connections you wouldn’t have been able to make, as tenacious as you are about following the law.” She takes a flash drive from her coat pocket and slides it across the table. “This contains everything I’ve been able to dig up on Lillian’s underground activities and Lex’s ill-conceived plans. My associates have done well in unearthing several files which I think you’ll find most useful—provided that you’re not stubborn enough to avoid using them in the name of principle.”

“I _do_ know when to fold, Jamie.”

“See, that’s one of the reasons why you have always been my favourite Luthor,” Jamie tells her with a playful grin. “It only feels right that I do what I can to make sure you remain to exist, or who else is going to beat me at chess?”

Lena takes the flash drive, looking at it with a small smile. “I thought that’s what you have that one man for.”

“First of all, he’s never beaten me at chess. And second, I’ll have you know that Sherlock’s lost his charm years ago. Have I not told you that?” Jamie frowns, puzzling over whether she has indeed forgotten to tell Lena this pertinent information, before shrugging it off. “Oh well. I’ve moved on to a new person.” A goofy sort of smile appears on Jamie’s face, and it surprises Lena, to say the least. She has never seen Jamie look so . . . _pleased_ , and friend or no, the juxtaposition of the innocence in her expression and the fact that she has probably killed as many people as Lena’s brother is jarring. “I think you’ll find her amusing as well.”

“People are not toys, Jamie,” she admonishes, exasperated. It’s an old argument, but one that placates her, especially when a corner of her world implodes into another. She doesn’t condone Jamie’s actions, nor her motivations, and certainly not her ideals, but Lena knows how to pick her battles. Jamie’s network is a lot less grim than the Luthors’ own, and her activities are more into profit than into genocide. That is something that Lena understands, at least.

Business has always been easier to handle than anything else.

“I know, I know.” Jamie hums happily, ignores Lena’s muttered _you don’t_. “Anyway, I really just wanted to drop by. I hardly ever see you, but know that I will visit again once I’ve cleared up some of my, well, business.”

“How vaguely threatening.”

“Save it,” Jamie says, mock-aggravated. She looks at Lena’s window, and a flicker of _something_ flashes in her eyes.

Just then, Lena hears the all-too-familiar swish of a cape, and she swivels in her seat just in time to see the Girl of Steel softly land on her balcony.

She has a pensive look on her face, and there’s a crinkle between her brows, so often seen on Kara Danvers but rarely on this persona.

Not that Lena is paying any particular attention, not at all.

It’s just.

Well.

Okay, she _is_.

It’s sort of natural for her to do so when her only friend in the city is also the city’s darling hero.

But Lena doesn’t have the time to dwell on that, or on the way Supergirl seems to fold in on herself as she looks between Lena and Jamie, because then Jamie is on her feet, gushing, “Supergirl! A pleasure to meet you at last!” offering Supergirl a hand.

Kara seems taken aback, and she blinks as if clearing her head of unpleasant thoughts. (Not that Lena actually believes Kara is capable of any unpleasant thoughts.) She has plastered a smile on her face, though to Lena it seems fake. (Yes, she admits she has been spending way too much time categorising Kara’s smiles. So what?) “Hi,” she greets back, shaking Jamie’s hand, “pleasure to meet you too, uhm—?”

“Jamie,” Jamie supplies, grinning, “Jamie Tyrell.”

That seems to surprise Kara even more. “Oh, uhm, of Tyrell Technologies?”

Jamie’s grin widens, and Lena wants to kick her off her balcony. “Why, Supergirl, I didn’t know you cared about companies outside National City.”

“I-uh—well,” Supergirl flounders, and there is so much Kara in her in this moment that Lena cannot help but smile. She gestures with both hands, and Lena wishes she could take them in her own, if only to try to calm her down. “I just, the tech you develop—they’re wonderful. Awesome, really. Pretty cool. Fantastic. Kudos.” And bless her heart, Supergirl gives Jamie a thumbs-up.

(Lena kind of wants to kiss her adorable awkward alien self.

This is not the first time that _want_ made itself known.)

Jamie leans in, faux-whispering, “Are you sure you should be telling me that in Lena’s presence? She doesn’t like competition when it comes to her beloved tech, you know.”

At that Kara blanches, and she meets Lena’s gaze with wide eyes. “I don’t—That’s not what I—I was just—” She seems genuinely horrified that Lena cannot help but chuckle.

“It’s okay, Supergirl. No offense taken,” she assures her. She then turns to Jamie, who looks like the cat that ate the canary. “And, Jamie, please, stop teasing my friend.” And because she’s also apparently a little shit, she adds, “This city relies on its hero, and we do need her to be able to form complete sentences sometime soon.”

Kara groans and Jamie laughs. Lena is looking at Kara’s reddening face with too much focus, and it really is no surprise when she catches sight of the comprehension dawning in Jamie’s gaze.

She seems way too delighted about it, actually, and that is the only warning Lena gets before Jamie’s face takes on the determined expression it always does when she’s scheming.

“I really am glad to meet you,” Jamie says, smiling at Supergirl. “You made this visit that much more fun.”

“Oh!” Kara looks like she just remembered something and seems embarrassed about it. “I’m sorry, I interrupted, didn’t I?” She looks at Lena, then at Jamie, then at Lena again. “I’m sorry, I’ll just, I’ll come back later?”

“Nonsense,” Jamie says, shrugging on her coat. “I’m just on my way out.”

“Are you—Are you sure?” She jerks a thumb, pointing to the skies behind her. “I can just—I mean, I can fly out, no worries, if you two, uhm—”

“It’s okay, Supergirl. Besides, if you’re really feeling that sorry about it, you can just promise one thing, yes?”

“All right,” Kara nods, suddenly serious, and Lena’s heart swells. She’s so earnest, so pure, so _good_.

Jamie winks. “Just take care of my girl for me, okay?”

“O-okay,” Kara says, voice sort of strangled. She clears her throat twice before repeating, “Okay. Sure. I will.” She barely wavers, but Lena knows she’s in shock, or something akin to it.

“Excellent!” Jamie beams, and her ice-blue eyes look like melted sapphires now. (Lena cannot help but frown, though she supposes it is with a bit of wonder; Jamie’s a brilliant actress, and it is somewhat a waste that her line of work uses that talent in the worst of ways.) Then she is standing beside Lena and is planting a kiss on her cheek that lingers a second longer than is proper. “Be careful, love,” she says, tone unnecessarily warm, then she turns around and leaves, casting them a jaunty wave before the door clicks shut behind her.

Lena is still frowning after Jamie’s gone, and she only gets shaken out of her reverie when Kara clears her throat.

“I’m sorry, I was just—I wanted to see if you’re okay?” Kara is not meeting her eyes, and the crinkle is back in the space between her brows, and she’s tense—tenser than she was when they were trapped by Lena’s mother, and that is saying something—and it tugs painfully at Lena’s heartstrings.

“I—yes, yes, I am, Kara. Thank you,” Lena says, standing next to her. She wants to reach out, to touch, but she hasn’t earned that right, that comfort, so she represses the urge.

It’s a difficult thing to do, but she manages.

(Barely.)

“Would you like to sit?” she asks instead, tilting her head to the couch.

Kara looks relieved, the tension easing a bit. “Yes, please.”

Lena walks to the couch, gestures for her to go on. “A drink?”

“No, I’m good.” Kara sweeps her cape to the side, gingerly takes a seat.

Lena nods, gets water for herself before settling down. She takes a sip, then turns her attention to her companion. “So, to what do I owe this visit?”

“Uhm, well”—Kara shrugs, winces when she tugs at her cape—“as I said, I kind of just wanted to make sure you’re okay.” She looks down, plays with her sleeves. “I would have checked earlier, you know, but uhm, Mo—there’s been a sort of crisis? But not really like, a crisis-crisis. More like an annoyance-crisis, I guess? If there’s a sort of thing like that. It’s difficult to explain ’cause even I have trouble really understanding what happened, which is, you know, something, because I _was_ there.” She scrunches her nose adorably. “I totally wish I wasn’t.”

“Well,” Lena offers around a smile, “at least you’re here now.” She didn’t intend for that to sound so bashfully happy, but that’s exactly what she sounded like.

“Yep, that’s—yes, I’m here.” Kara stares at her then, as if searching her soul for _something_ , and Lena’s breath catches in her throat.

Her eyes are so impossibly blue. Lena would happily drown in them if she could.

“I—I’m really sorry, if I—if I interrupted something earlier.”

“What?”

“The, uhm, the thing, with your girlfriend?”

Lena frowns. “My what?”

“Uhm”—Kara’s eyes are really something, oh, Lena’s in deep trouble—“Miss Tyrell, I mean?”

“Oh.” Lena blinks. Understanding settles in. “ _Oh_. _Oh no._ ”

“What?”

“No.”

“No?”

“She’s not—Jamie—she’s not my girlfriend.”

“What?”

“We’re not together.” Lena thinks for a second, amends, “Well, we might have been something a long time ago, but we’re not actually together. And we never will be.”

“Bu-but—” Kara frowns, making sense of what Lena is saying and what she thinks she witnessed earlier. “She said—”

“Jamie says a lot of things. That doesn’t mean she should be believed all the time,” Lena says. “She’s—She’s an old friend.” She thinks of what Jamie would have thought of her using that term, and smiles.

Kara sees it, of course. “You’re fond of her,” she says softly.

Lena sighs, shrugs. “She’s one of the only people who understand what it’s like, living the life I do. Old money, full of crime.” Her smile is self-deprecating, now. “The usual.”

“That’s not all you are,” Kara says, and her earnestness sears.

“Sometimes I find that hard to believe,” Lena admits, without meaning to.

Kara shakes her head, vigorous in her refusal to accept Lena’s statement. She turns, tilts her body so that she’s facing Lena on the couch. She’s looking at Lena with the intensity of a thousand suns. (An apt description for her, Lena thinks, because Kara . . . well. She is Lena’s sun.) “You’re a good person, Lena—better than most. And I will tell you that every day, if that’s what it takes for you to believe it.”

“Kara,” Lena says in an almost whisper, “you don’t have to.”

“I want to.” Kara beams at her, her smile lopsided, eyes bright, shining with—what? Fondness? Adoration? Lena cannot say. (She doesn’t know if her heart can take it, if that _something_ finally gets a name. The fear, the wariness, they grip her from within, and she finds it difficult to breathe.)

“Well then,” Lena says, finding her voice, somewhere between the spaces of _I don’t deserve you, but I’m selfish and I want you_ , “I suppose it would be bad form for me not to take up the Girl of Steel’s selfless offer.”  

“You’re such a dork,” Kara says, laughing, and just like that, the pressure eases; the sound unwinds the tightness coiling in Lena’s chest, and she can breathe again.

 

****

 

(And maybe someday—not tomorrow, perhaps, but someday soon—Lena will finally have the courage to tell Kara that she may be fond of Jamie, but it is with Kara Zor-El that she has fallen in love.)

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> i was rewatching s2 episodes of _Elementary_. i saw jamie’s fine mug again and remembered Katie and Natalie’s ASL ice bucket challenge. so here we are. i’m sorry. i wrote this with no sleep i can’t be held accountable for my actions lol kthnxbye (of course i named her _Tyrell_. the opportunity is there and i’d be remiss not to take it.) #GiveLenaMoreFriends
> 
> Come yell at me or something at [A Blank Canvas](http://agentjoannemills.tumblr.com/ask) or [@eyyogg](https://twitter.com/eyyogg). Gush/Rant about this goddamn ship.  
> Feedback is much appreciated; feelings fuel everything. :))


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